People Are the Same All Over
by Klaxon
Summary: Haven is breached and there is no going back. All out interspecies war has begun. But certain things have happened to make Holly question whether either side is really worth fighting for.
1. War

Chapter One

Haven was in shambles. The lights flickered in some areas - in others, they would never come on again. Now and then an explosion in some distant chamber would break the ominous silence for a moment – but only for a moment. Bodies of elves and sprites littered the floors of decimated tunnels, like so much mudman refuse. And in the middle of one of these death zones was Holly Short.

If Commander Root could have seen her now, he would not have known her for the spirited and principled Recon officer she had once been. Now she was simply a shell, motionless and expressionless, slouched against the wall of the tunnel with her bruised and bleeding legs stretched outbefore her. Her LEP suit had more tears than seams. She had been coerced into "volunteering" a month before, a time when every fairy who could hold a gun suddenly felt the ardent desire to "volunteer." The Council still liked to pretend that such uniquely human policies as conscription were below fairy ethic.

After Holly had sat in silence for some time (and whether she were even aware of her surroundings could hardly be determined), Trouble came lumbering down the tunnel, gun in hand, jumping some bodies and kicking others to the side when they grew too numerous. At last he came to where Holly was and pronounced her name urgently.

"Holly!" he said. She didn't reply; her face didn't even register a sign that she had heard him. Her eyes stared blankly at the opposite wall of the tunnel, just as _his_ had stared a few days earlier – but, then, the life behind his eyes had really been gone – Holly's eyesonly looked it.

"Holly!" said Trouble again, this time shaking her rather roughly by the shoulder. Holly's eyes came into focus and she saw him – recognized him, he was sure–but said nothing.

"Holly, what's the matter with you?" he asked impatiently. "Don't tell me you're shell-shocked now! You had plenty of opportunity to be that way a few days ago."

For a moment Holly just looked at him blankly. Then her countenance slowly broke into an eerie grin ,and she gave a little maniacal chuckle. Through all the terror of the last month, Trouble had been brave and unflinching, but now his spine tingled with an indefinable fear. But just as it had appeared, the smile and the madness disappeared, and she was just Holly again.

"What are you doing here, Trouble?" she asked him, frowning.

"What do you think? I've come to find you. We need all the officers we can get up top, everyone who can fire a gun, but we're running seriously short of ones with experience. So come on, let's get going!"

"No," said Hollyquietly and unequivocally. "I'm not coming."

"What are you talking about, Short? Get up, and get a move on," he said, the anger seeping into his voice.

"I told you I won't," said Holly, growing angry in her turn.

"Are yousaying you're just going to sit here and relaxwhile your people fight and die?" stormed Trouble.

"_My_ people?" she scoffed. "Who are _my _people? I don't know anymore. I don't think I ever had a people."

Trouble was becoming enraged. All of his good men and civilians were dropping by the hundreds while one of the best officers sat philosophizing? He came to a decision; grabbing her arm, he yanked her to her feet.

"We're going, Short," he said brusquely. "Don't think you're going tomope here while Haven –"

His words were cut short as Holly suddenly jabbed her elbow hard into Trouble's kidneys,snatched her Neutrino 2000 from its holster, and pointed it at his chest as he crouched in pain, winded.

"There is no haven," she said with a voice of iron. "And I won't come with you."

When Trouble recovered enough breath, he rasped out a scornful reproach: "What has that mud boy done to you? You're no fairy at all. Stay down here and die if that's what you want." He turned and limped back the way he had come, nearly doubled over in pain.

When his footsteps ceased to echo, Holly's gun hand began to shake and she dropped the Neutrino and fell to the floor. Drawing her knees to her chest, she began to sob.

Worlds had collided, and there was nothing left.


	2. The Disc

**A/N: Yeah, I know, there isn't enough dialogue, but it's coming in chapter three. At this point there's no one for Holly to talk to.**

**Chapter Two: The Disc**

Holly wanted to die; she willed herself to die. But when half-an-hour had passed and she was still stubbornly alive, she pushed herself to her feet and looked about, her eyes emanating despondency and despair. Even the most dejected person can only remain in one position for so long.

A month's acquaintance with dead bodies left her numb, and the sight of them scattered across the tunnel floor for as far as she could see garnered no response. Mechanically, she picked her way down the hall, with no particular objective in mind but to kill the time before she dropped dead of exhaustion and dehydration, or a final explosion decimated the remainder of Haven. After several minutes of walking, she came upon a body she thought she recognised. Crouching down beside it, she pushed aside the arm of another body which lay across his face. Yes, it was who she had thought it was – Dr. J. Argon, the famous psychiatrist who had written extensively on Artemis Fowl. Holly sat back on her heels and looked at him for a while, feeling nothing. Strange how obsessed he had been with the mental workings of a mud boy. But he had been proven right when Haven was attacked, and before he'd died, he had made sure every fairy knew it. Holly didn't know when Argon had died, but she guessed it was when his psychological briefings to Commander Kelp had ended a couple days ago. Holly could have accepted the breaching of Haven much more easily if she hadn't been forced to acknowledge that Artemis was the cause of it. And he had not endangered the fairies accidentally, as he had so many times when he was younger. This time he had made it known that he was doing it on purpose – he wanted the fairies exterminated. It was this which really stung Holly – since meeting Artemis and witnessing his change from heartless fiend to arrogant, yet somehow humble friend of the fairies, she'd supposed there was some good in mankind, and the differences between fairies and humans seemed lessened, nearly inconsequential. But then he had reverted.

Artemis' father and mother died within a few days of each other. An attack was made on Artemis' life, but it had been thwarted by Butler. However, when Butler and Juliet were killed soon after, his grief had manifested itself as cold fury. He'd tracked down their killers and discovered the shocking truth – a new element inside the fairy Council following Root's death had lobbied for the assassination of Artemis and his family, and the movement had passed almost unanimously. No one was to know of it except the Council – not the LEP, and certainly not fairy civilians. But Artemis didn't know this – he only knew the fairies had killed his family and friends. Ironically, this caused him to become exactly what the fairies had feared he would all along.

While she was thinking these thoughts, it occurred to Holly that Argon was grasping something protectively in his right hand. She tried to pry the hand open, but his grip on whatever-it-was belied his lifeless state. Eventually she opened his fingers enough to see a tiny fairy disc in its casing. She pulled it out and looked at it. In small fairy lettering across the case, it said "Artemis Fowl." This was hardly surprising since Argon had ate, slept, and breathed the mudman since the attack. But looking closer, she saw a date beneath the name. The disc had been made a good ten years before. A cold chill swept over Holly for reasons she did not yet understand. Something wasn't right – she could sense it. She got to her feet with something of the old fire returning to her eyes, and continued walking down the hall. She had to find a computer and see what Argon had on the disk. Maybe it was nothing, but if it was what her fairy intuition was hinting it was, it could change everything.

Just then another explosion, much closer this time, shook the tunnel and knocked her to the ground. When it ended, she rose up on her newly skinned knees and set off down the hall at a faster and faster pace, until eventually she found that she was sprinting. She had no thought of getting away or saving herself; she didn't want to be saved, after the evils she had seen. She wanted only to see what was on the disc before she died.


	3. The Nightmare Resurfaces

**Author's note:** Finally some dialogue. I likes writing dialogue (intentional bad grammar). I'm awfully sporadic at updating, so come back when you're all out of your teens and it _might_ be finished.

**Thermit**: Thanks, I'm glad you like it.

**Hunter-of-Fairies: **My muses always fail me. They'll never get a raise at this rate. Sorry about the no-anonymous-reviews but it seemed a delightfully devious thing to do at the time. And the bloody spaces-between-words issue. It's the program's fault - it was all right when I typed it in Word, but transfer it to fanfiction and it all goes to hell. If it does it again with this chapter, I'm going to shake my fist at it (prepare yourself, it's a fearsome sight). Yeah, Holly's strange state is in the process of being explained.

P. S. shakes fist

Holly plunged down the tunnel, now and then tripping over debris or fairy carnage, and falling painfully to the ground. But she hardly seemed to notice; she simply picked herself up and ran on.

Computers were certainly not hard to come by in Haven, and nearly every door she came to had one behind it; still, the majority were damaged or had smashed up screens. After the third room Holly tried produced yet another shattered console, she rammed her fist through the screen in frustration. Unfortunately – or perhaps fortunately, as the case would have it – that was the exact moment when emergency power failed, and she was instantly pitched into deep and suffocating blackness. That is, except for the tiny halo of blue light surrounding her bloodied fist – the last of her fairy magic was healing her hand. Fighting the urge to just lie down and scream at her ill-luck, she used the last of the dying blue sparks to light her way back into the tunnel. She made it back to the tunnel, but she had no torch, no magic, and no sense of direction. If she tried to continue down the hall, she'd only get turned around and trip over bodies, and she hadn't a single spark of magic left to heal herself. So she played at patience and sat down with her back against the tunnel wall, willing the power to come back on. When after several minutes, it still hadn't, her mind began to wander back to the scene of a few days prior. The memory always began with a sharp jolt of pain in her chest, which became a dull ache that persisted for hours after she'd blocked the memory from consciousness. Now Holly tried to stop herself from remembering the nightmare, but felt sadistically compelled to replay it. Three days ago, Holly had been fighting half-heartedly up top, along with a good two-thirds of the remaining LEP officers.

They were attempting to hold back the wave of mudmen attacks before they could reach a critical area above Haven. By this point, the LEP had orders to set their neutrinos to kill, but Holly ignored the command and kept it on stun. She was seriously disillusioned by the ease with which her own people accepted the transition from peace-lovers to merciless killers, and even more so by the fact that they justified the butchery by claiming it was _protecting_ that peace. But for the time being, she'd fought on. What else was there to do?

Rumours began to circulate that a mud man well-known to the fairies was behind the betrayal of Haven, but Holly stubbornly refused to entertain the idea. When it became known that human weapons had been modified to make use of fairy technology – in an eerily familiar way which smacked of Artemis – Holly's disbelief grew to furious denial. Then Foaly received intelligence from a scout who'd somehow managed to make it back to base and transmit the information before he died, that Artemis Fowl II was in a bunker nearby, and was in all likelihood the one directing operations. Foaly himself felt disinclined to accept the news, despite the bioscan read-out the scout had brought back as proof, and despite the evidence that Foaly had until now kept from the other fairies – that much of the fairies' own technology was being neutralised somehow, and that could only be accomplished by an amazingly clever tactician with access to technology much more advanced than mud men's. Of course, it was possible a fairy could have defected to the humans, but, well – the weapons dropped by downed mud people were only of _part_ fairy make, and the very fact that the fairies were losing right now showed that whoever was leading them was incredibly intelligent and resourceful. And with Opal dead, there was no other known fairy with those qualities or the desire to put them into action in such a way. Foaly's instinct told him it _was_ the mud boy, and every minute he kept this information from his superiors was one more that they wouldn't know what they're up against. So he decided to call in Holly.

She walked in, her face and hands splattered in days' worth of mud, sweat, and blood, exhaustion clearly written on her face – no one in Haven slept anymore. There was a strange gleam in her eyes that took Foaly a minute to place. Then he realised – she was petrified with the horror of all she had seen, and only some rapidly depleting reserves of determination were keeping her sane.

"What is it, Foaly?" she asked, as he took all this in, and gulped. "Don't tell me you just called me in to give me a break from the fighting." She was standing in front of Foaly as he sat on his swivel chair in the makeshift underground ops booth in a section of Haven as yet undisturbed. She'd come to see him as he'd urgently requested, but so far he had said nothing at all, only looking at her with a seriousness she very rarely saw in him. He seemed to be fighting with himself to tell her something. He opened his mouth as if about to get it over with, then shut it again, and his face crumpled in something like despair.

"Foaly, please, just spit it out!" said Holly. She couldn't imagine what he could possibly have to say that could be so hard to tell her – the existence of Haven was common knowledge to humans by now, thousands of fairies had died hellish deaths, and though they still fought on dutifully, every fairy knew that it was only a matter of time before they all died by mud man hands. Most everyone she loved had already died, so what could be left to upset her?

"Okay, well – the scouts went out, as you know, and most of them died but one survived and made it back, bringing bioscan readouts, and –"

"Come to the point, Foaly!" Holly practically shouted. His hesitancy was making her skin crawl in dread.

Foaly took a deep breath and said it: "It seems Artemis is the one behind the attacks." There was a long pause. "Holly?"

Holly had gone pale and her breath had stopped halfway to her lungs. She tried to swallow but her tongue stuck in her throat, completely dry.

"That's not true, Foaly," she finally managed to whisper.

Foaly mistook the calmness of her words for the real thing. "I don't want to believe it either, Holly, but every sign points to Fowl as leader of the enemy's operations." He went on to list the evidence, assuming Holly's fixed eyes and unmoving posture denoted rationality. As he went on, Holly began to breathe heavily, and when he got to the long-range feed the scout had captured, she screamed and leapt at Foaly, shaking him violently.

"It's not true, it's not! Artemis would never do this, to us – never! For no amount of gold!" Her shakes gradually became less powerful, and she eventually broke down in sobs on the floor, holding her knees and rocking back and forth in overwhelming agony and frustration. She realised now that a part of her had always suspected Artemis was somehow behind the massacres, but until now she had been able to push the nagging doubt out of her mind. Now it all made sense – why their equipment was malfunctioning, why they were losing despite their supposedly superior technology, why they could not contact Artemis to ask for his help. He had turned on them, as the People had always feared he would. And all she could think was, "_why?_"

Foaly, momentarily shocked by a the picture of a Holly completely devoid of hope, finally came to his senses, stood up, and lifted her into his chair. She did not even seem to notice.

Foaly didn't know what to say. He'd never been faced with such anguish. He knew she'd seen things up top that he only saw as briefings on paper. "Holly…" he stammered. "He – he's a mud man, and he's always been a particularly ruthless one…" Here Holly choked on her sobs and looked up at him. "It's just – we were fooled, it's no one's fault –"

"I knew him Foaly," she cut in, her words simultaneously emoting hurt and anger. "I could see right through him, and he would never have dreamed of doing anything like this unless…something made him…"

"It would have to be a pretty big something. Like what?" said Foaly.

Holly leapt out of her chair distractedly and began to pace the room. "Oh, I don't know Foaly, _something_. He could be under the _mesmer_, or had false memories inserted, or…"

"That would require the efforts of a rogue fairy even more sadistic than Opal was, Holly," said Foaly, unconvinced. "And none of the LEP's known criminals comes anywhere near that category of evil."

"Who says they have to be known?" snapped Holly, her eyes blazing. "You're brought up thinking we're the good guys, we're humane, we're civilized…well, I don't see any evidence of that! All it took was detection and a couple of mud man bullets, and we butcher them like they butcher cows. Those 'peaceful' fairies, the ones you sat next to in school and traded digi-games with, they're out there right now shooting sixteen-year-old boys without blinking an eye." She hesitated for a moment, then said what was really on her mind: "I think your definition of 'evil' needs to be reassessed, Foaly."

Foaly's eyes widened at what he was hearing. Despite his intelligence, the greater import of her words flew over his head. "What are you saying, Holly?"

Holly shook her head in all the hopelessness of one whose entire belief system had suddenly been proven groundless. Her eyes drained of the light that had fed her passion a moment before, and became clouded-over and lifeless. "Don't you understand, Foaly?" she sighed. "We're no different from them, we're all the same."

Foaly was not prepared to accept this momentous revelation. "Holly, I –"

"Look, it doesn't matter any more. I doubt mud man or fairy will be alive much longer to think about it. But Artemis – I know he was different. Something's going on, or something happened to make him do this, and if it's really him in there, Foaly, I'm going to find out what it is," she said.

"Holly, no! It's a suicide mission!" protested Foaly. "You can't be thinking of walking into the middle of that war zone."

"I don't care if they kill me so long as I get to talk to Artemis first. I've got to know, Foaly. It's all I have left," said Holly.

Foaly was silent, thinking. Holly watched him. "Will you help me, Foaly? Because I'm going whether you want me to or not, and I'd stand a much better chance of making it to the bunker if I had you on my side."

Foaly hung his head. "All right, Holly, I'll help you. I guess there's no use delaying the inevitable, eh?" He looked up. "I'd like to know why he did it as well, but I wouldn't risk your life for the answer."

"It's already risked, Foaly," said Holly. "All of ours are."

"I know. But it's a harsh truth nobody wants to look at." They were silent for a moment, then Foaly spoke again. "There's a good chance I'll never see you again, Holly."

Holly's eyes filled with tears once again, and she nodded. "You were a good friend, Foaly, the best of friends – I'll miss you."

Foaly's drew in his breath sharply, his face twisting in an effort to remain under control. Finally he gave up and snatched her in a hug so tight she couldn't breathe.

A blast shook the floor Holly sat on just before a wall of fire shot half-way down the tunnel towards her. She leapt to her feet, half her mind still on the painful memory, and struggled to take in the present situation. Before the flames began to retreat back down the hall, she came to herself and thought quickly. One of the bodies scattered about her must have a working torch on it – if she could find one before the light disappeared again, she could search for a working computer.

Glancing swiftly about herself, she patted down two or three bodies before spotting a torch on another. She didn't hesitate – she'd seen too much death in the last month to be squirmy about it now. Holly snatched up the torch just as the flames receded back down the tunnel and again left her stranded in the deep gloom. She held her breath – would its power source still be working? She flicked it on – and instantly a long beam of white light shot out across the smoky air of the underground. She exhaled shakily and began to walk. This was it.


	4. Who is Artemis Fowl?

**A/N: Yes, it's been forever, but the story is not dead. This chapter only got written on account of a couple of _very dull_ classes. Any problems with spacing are entirely the fault of whatever bloody program fanfiction uses. The next chapter, when I get around to writing it, will be a flashback to Holly's confrontation with Artemis. It's for that chapter that I wrote the story in the first place. I haven't decided quite how morbid/disturbing I'm going to make it. But I shall up the rating if it's too much of either. What is the rating right now, anyway? Beh, who cares. Notice the spiffy separator line below? I figured out how to make it. Are you proud of me?**

**

* * *

**  
When a search of the main tunnels proved unsuccessful, Holly had been forced to go down one of more demolished ones, and to her surprise, the first room she came to was completely intact. Its gleaming hardwood floors were evidence that it had been the office of a wealthy fairy indeed – wood was rare in the underground. Shelves filled with books and their technological counterparts lined the walls, and there were a couple of plush armchairs in front of a large plasma screen which was built into one wall.

Holly was standing in front of the screen now – staring at it, though it was not even turned on. She clutched the disk in its case tightly in one fist. Now that it were finally possible, she found herself scared to death to see what was on it. Taking several deep breaths, she closed her eyes for a moment; composing herself. When she opened them, she turned quickly on her heel and slid the disk into the computer. Then she dropped down into one of the chairs and shakily voiced a command to the computer: "Open."

The screen came to life: two video files appeared, labeled simply, "age 13" and "interview." The titles couldn't exactly be thought of as sinister, but she felt her heart slam painfully against her ribcage anyway. Suddenly, the strangeness of having found Argon in the particular tunnel she did struck her – it was a danger zone – no one who had had any means of escape would have been down there since at least a week-and-a-half ago. And Argon was certainly not one to risk his neck unnecessarily. What was so important that he came back down here? Perhaps it was for this disk.

Holly's chest was really hurting now – she had to wait until the spasms passed before she could mouth the next command: "Play first file."

It played. And she instantly recognized the picture which appeared – it was Artemis' study in Fowl Manor, and it appeared to be empty. Holly's eyebrows knitted in confusion. Why was Artemis' house being filmed? She had been aware of no LEP orders for this kind of monitoring. But she didn't have time to ponder the riddle more thoroughly – because suddenly the room wasn't empty anymore. Artemis had walked in. "Strode" would be the more opportune word. Wherever Artemis went his presence commanded attention, even if he wasn't aware that there was anyone to be affected by it. Holly froze, her eyes fixed on his face as he made his way across the study to his desk, on which sat his laptop. As he sat down, Holly gasped – the angle of the camera suddenly switched and she was looking at him head on. This was no incidental filming, then. Could Root have given orders to spy on Artemis without telling her?

Artemis was wearing a particularly awful expression as he typed away at the laptop. Even though, once more, he was only a child, he was somehow frightening, even when just he was just sitting at a computer. Holly shivered in spite of herself; after what she'd been through, she'd thought there was nothing which could frighten her anymore, but she'd been wrong. The camera switched angles again and zoomed in – she could actually see the screen, could even see the time in the lower right-hand corner of the laptop's monitor: 7:13 PM. Holly flinched – she could see what he was doing as well, and it definitely wasn't legal. She was pretty sure the population of Norway must have woken up much poorer the next morning.

Whatever the details of the illegal activity he was involved in, he wasn't long at it. Five minutes later, he closed the laptop and spun around slowly in his chair to face the camera. The blue-grey light of an Irish dusk fell on his face. He must have been looking out the window, but he was not thinking about the scenery. His eyes had a distant look in them and were glowing in an almost preternatural way, and his mouth wore a smirk of undeniable cunning. Holly suddenly found that she wasn't breathing – and she didn't bother to try until he finally looked away. He began to absentmindedly loosen his tie and unbutton his crisp white dress shirt. Halfway down his hand froze where it was and any remnants of arrogance left his face as he slowly lifted out something hanging from a silver chain around his neck. He held it up and stared at it for a few moments, unmoving. She saw him gulp, and his eyes looked suddenly tired and saddened. He let the gold coin fall back on his chest but kept his hand clasped tightly round it, his eyes fixed on the floor. Finally, the phone in his jacket pocket buzzed loudly, jolting him out of his ruminations. He pulled out the phone, glancing at the name displayed on its screen. He let it ring once more, as if undecided, then stood up, quickly slipping the medallion back under his shirt. He flipped the phone open.

The scene ended abruptly and was replaced with another, this time of Artemis' bedroom. So it wasn't just his study that had been monitored. The second scene was much the same, and Holly was worried that if she watched them all, she might run out of time and never see the second file, which she felt sure was the more important one. So she closed that file and opened the next.

Instantly, the screen went black. When the picture came back, Holly could sense the change in tone immediately. She was looking at a dimly lit room. A figure, only a deeper shadow in the darkness, sat slumped in an armchair, completely still. Then the lights brightened, and Holly realized with a sense of shock that the room she was looking at on the screen was the very room she herself was in, and the chair the black figure sat in was the same chair she was sitting in at that moment. Even with his head buried in his chest, Holly could see the person in the chair was not a fairy – it was a human. A human – in the underground. She didn't think that had ever happened other than once or twice when it had been imperative that Artemis and Butler be brought to Haven. Worse, Holly had the sinking feeling that she knew this human. The hair was mussed up and covered the human's forehead and eyes, but it was as deeply black as Artemis', while the whiteness of his face and hands stood out harshly against his black clothes and the black cloth of the armchair. It had to be him. Who else could it be?

Then Holly heard a shuffling noise and an elf appeared on the screen and moved to stand in front of the human, blocking him from view for a moment. He sat down opposite him. Holly waited tensely for what seemed like a whole minute, and still the fairy and Artemis remained as still as if the playback had been halted. She was just about to check if this were the case when a voice she recognized began to speak.

"Artemis," said Professor Argon. "Open your eyes."

The black head lifted itself and the body straightened itself out; the eyes were the last to respond to the instructions. It was as if Artemis were trying to defy Argon even while under the mesmer – and he clearly _was_ under the mesmer. At last the lashes parted and Holly caught a glimpse between them of a startling blue that she had never expected to see again – yet here he was, still living, if only as a projection on a plasma screen. Holly realized after they began to pulse that her fingers had been gripping the arms of her chair like pincers. She released them with difficulty. But _what _was that psychiatrist doing with Artemis? She could see in a pinch that this interview had not taken place during the time of the Goblin Rebellion when Artemis had been in Haven – he looked at least eighteen.

"All right," spoke Argon again. "Now Artemis, I'm going to ask you a few questions, and you're going to answer them fully and honestly. Do you understand?"

"You're not even speaking in gnommish, Dr. Argon," said Artemis, in the flat tones of the mesmerized. "And even if you were, I would understand."

Argon frowned. "Just answer the question, mud boy."

Artemis sighed, but in his mesmerized state he could only hold a look of annoyance for a few seconds before it gave way to the usual dreamy expression. "I understand."

"Good." Argon tapped his foot nervously for a few seconds, then blurted out, "First question – what are your bank account numbers and passwords?"

Artemis seemed to come to himself slightly, as if he'd discovered that the flower he'd been admiring had suddenly snapped at him. "What do you want to know that for?"

"That's not your concern. You want to tell me. It's in your best interests. Now remember, you said you'd answer my questions. So what are the numbers and passwords?" Argon was adding more layers to the mesmer in his voice, but still Artemis hesitated. Holly felt sorry for him – he was clearly distressed and she knew that he would never jeopardize the safety of his fortune if he had any choice at all. But what could Argon want with Artemis' bank accounts? She couldn't believe he'd kidnapped Artemis simply to get his money – that didn't seem like Argon's way. Looking at Artemis in such inner turmoil, she forgot where she was for a minute, forgot everything, and just wanted desperately to laugh at him. He looked so ridiculously unhappy that she had the overwhelming desire to hug him tightly and change the worried frown into the look of indignant surprise which would certainly have followed. That is, until she remembered where she was – and where Artemis was – and all feeling of humour left her abruptly.

Artemis was mumbling a last attempt at refusal. "I don't…I don't want…"

Argon deepened the spell still further. "Tell me, Artemis. My time is valuable."

"So are my bank accounts," grumbled Artemis, sighing. "Swiss National Bank, number 103306402, password 42A639BT0, Bank of Ireland…" he listed them off. While he spoke, Argon recorded the information in his pocket organizer. There was a long pause during which he did something with the organizer, while Artemis stared unhappily at the air in front of him. Holly wondered what the psychiatrist could be doing. Finally, Argon snapped the lid of the organizer shut.

"Well done, Artemis. I checked, and those are indeed your accounts. I must say, I had no idea you had quite so much money. But there's no time to enquire as to where you obtained it, even if I cared. Let's get on to more important matters."

"You're not going to take the money?" asked Artemis, brightening slightly.

"No, of course not. What would I want with your mud man money? I simply had to be certain that you had not somehow evaded the mesmer yet again.

"Ah," said Artemis. He understood.

"Question number two, then. We're pressed for time. Why do you choose to be a criminal?"

"I want to be rich."

"You can't get rich other ways? Ways that don't involve the fairy people? Legal ways?"

"Illegal is quicker."

"Very well. Why do you want to be rich?"

There was a pause. "Money is power," said Artemis, finally.

"And why do you want power?"

Another brief silence. "I don't know."

"You must know. What do you get out of being powerful? Do you want to control the world? Are you a sadist? Do you enjoy watching people suffer?"

"No!" scoffed Artemis. "I want – I want…to be respected, even if it's only out of fear. And I seem to naturally incite fear in people, so it's easier just to use it to my advantage."

"But why do you need external validation? Why is it so important for you to be recognized and venerated?"

Artemis dropped his gaze, and stared at his perfectly polished black leather shoes. When he finally answered, his voice was quiet and grave. "Do you realize how many people live their whole lives in obscurity, die, and are immediately forgotten? Almost everybody. Most people don't even know their great-grandmother's first name. People try to live on through their children, but they're fooling themselves. Your children aren't you." He hesitated a moment before continuing. "I don't want to be forgotten. I don't want to be the dust used to grow food for the living." Artemis' voice was more serious than Holly had ever heard it. She squeezed her eyes shut and was surprised to feel the warmth of a tear sliding down her cheek. Even Argon seemed affected by the child-like honesty and passion of the mesmerized human boy.

"But you're fast on your way to becoming one of the most notorious criminals of all time. Why not do something to be remembered in a good way?"

"Good people are almost never powerful. And they rarely get noticed until after they're dead, when they aren't around to care. Besides, why would I want to spend my life making the world better when I won't be around to enjoy the results?"

Holly cringed. Artemis really had been selfish. Argon had probably been thinking the same thing. His voice was full of grim satisfaction, as if this was what he had expected to hear all along.

"How far would you be willing to go to achieve this fame and prestige you desire?"

Artemis looked uncomfortable and squirmed in his seat. He didn't answer.

"Artemis." More layers to the _mesmer_. "Answer the question."

"I can't say at this point – I'll only know when the time comes."

When Argon spoke next, Holly felt as if the air in the room has suddenly become deathly cold. "Would the lives of the fairies be acceptable sacrifices?"

Holly froze, willing Artemis to say they wouldn't be.

Artemis took a deep breath. "I don't know. Some fairies, maybe, just like some humans might have to be sacrificed. I wouldn't do it if there were any alternative."

"But if there weren't an alternative?"

"Then fairies would probably be sacrificed, yes."

Holly's shoulders slumped and more tears slipped silently down her cheeks as she gazed reproachfully at Artemis' face. "Oh, Artemis…" she whispered sadly.

Then Argon asked a question which took her by surprise. "What about your fairy friend, Holly Short? I understand you two are fairly close. Would you sacrifice her?"

On the screen, Holly saw Artemis jerk slightly, as if he'd been slapped. He lifted his head and stared at Argon as if seeing him for the first time.


End file.
